Well…just sitting here under a blanket trying to warm up after working on the snow for over an hour and thought I’d talk about the damn miracle that happened this morning in the senate…Joe’s 1.9 trillion dollar covid relief package passed with, of course, no repub support with Kamala casting the vote that broke the tie…it is now over in the house and should be approved later today for a signature by the first of the week. Unlike the 2008 stimulus that was way too small according to every economist who is not a right wing hack…Biden learned that lesson and just ignored the bleating of the repubs who are crying about the deficit…and they only do that when there is a dem president…you heard not one peep from them about the deficit when they passed their tax giveaway to the rich and corporations that added at least 1.9 trillion to the debt….and that wasn’t needed in an economy that was still good after Obama did all of the heavy lifting after the 2008 crash. Now, this relief package is necessary again to lift the economy and give people at least some money to pay their rent and continue to eat….and to my mind, this should just be the start of other targeted economic boosts that should continue until the pandemic is under control…people are hurting out there and we can afford to help them….and me, I hope…
Monthly Archives: February 2021
February 5th
Well…running a little late today with not getting out of bed until after 7 but I don’t feel like I slept well at all but that might be that I have just gotten started on the coffee and I normally have a couple of cups in me by now….didn’t have any dreams last night and that is pretty normal but I miss them when I don’t have them….it looks like we got a bunch of snow last night and it is going to take a while to shovel it this morning even after shoveling last night…at least I got the heavy stuff off the driveway last night so this stuff should be lighter…glad I don’t have anywhere to go today so I can get at it at my leisure this morning…for the first time since I’ve been here, there are drifts on the walks and driveway and it looks like more snow over the next few days as the lake effect crap is going to start later…oh, well…I did get an e-mail from my rep’s aide that the IRS is going to call me about not getting my 600 dollar check and I am really surprised about that….maybe I’m going to get it after all…we’ll see….not much to do today…just packing and cleaning and snow removal but that is about it…more later…
Plow trucks with frickin lasers….
Well…was just outside shoveling the first of the snow and when I got to the end of the driveway, a city plow truck came by with a frickin green laser shooting out from the front of it showing the driver just where the edge of the plow was going to be…and I couldn’t help but grin at the sight…frickin lasers on snow plows…pretty cool…
I got a response…
Well…if you come here often, you know about the ongoing saga of me trying to find out why I didn’t get the 600 dollar relief check that everyone else got…after exhausting every avenue on the internet, I took the step of writing to my new rep Peter Meijer’s office and to Senator Debbie Stabenow’s office to tell them about the fact that there are many people like me who have fallen through the cracks since we don’t pay income taxes on our SS benefits so to the IRS, we don’t exist. To my surprise, I got a response from rep Meijer’s office yesterday but the news is a mixed bag at best…the deadline for getting the checks is tomorrow and if it’s not in my mailbox by then, I’m not going to get it…and that means I won’t get the 1400 dollar check either that is included in the next round of relief payments unless the IRS constructs a way for us to enter our information…which I have no hope for. So, at least they responded to my e-mail and asked for additional information to use to talk to the IRS but I’m just one person that doesn’t have a million dollars to donate to them so my cynicism says that I’m shit out of luck…I really could have used that cash…
Blue states do better….
Well…read an article the other day that may be a surprise to some people but I think I may have talked about this before….the article took a look at the economies of red states vs. blue states and found that, while population is almost even between the states, blue states account for 72% of GDP while red states and their economic policies only account for 28% of GDP…and this means that people in blue states make more money than in red states, are more highly productive, are healthier, and they have better schools than the tax cutting obsessed red states. I will admit that the total tax burden is higher in blue states but the higher incomes and more progressive policies make them better places to live on any measure of quality of life….and I think that’s important along with the idea that in most blue states there is more of “we’re all in this together” attitude instead of the “every man for himself” that pervades red states….as it does under every dem administration at the national level, the economy always does better under dem policies than repub ones….and that is true of the states, too, as the huge disparity in GDP shows….but people in this country continue to vote against their own self interest and elect repubs…and that is something I’ll never understand….
February 4th
Well…damn, I think I’m in a rut…up at 5:20 again today but was able to go back to sleep until almost 6:30 so I guess it was an okay night…still pretty worn out, though, and feel like I could go back to sleep for another few hours…had some repeating weird dreams about the rich guy that let me stay in his house and mounted these strange adventures with strange people…haven’t had that one in a while….this one included cross country racing in those little three wheeled vehicles that meter maids used to use…and I think there were helicopters in there, too, but I can’t be sure of that….it looks like today will be the last day of riding for a while with the 5-8 inches of snow that is forecast for tonight and tomorrow so it looks like I’ll be hibernating for a couple of days and just shoveling snow and packing….probably should wash the bike today and get it ready to be re-lubed since I have been riding it in the salt the past few days and that is not good for it….and I need it to last for at least another year as I settle into the new house….not much to do today….just going to take it easy since I did the grocery run yesterday and don’t really need anything else…I do need to do laundry but that can wait until after I have coffee and read the news…more later…
Back to politics…
Well…I think Joe has learned that you can’t negotiate with the repubs since everything they do is in bad faith and you can’t trust them. In the latest covid relief plan, the repubs tried to cut out all help for state and local governments, cut extended unemployment benefits and make the next relief checks, that I won’t get, only a couple of hundred dollars when people are losing their homes and hunger is at an all time high in this country…but that is normal repub crap since they don’t give a damn about anyone but the rich. So Joe just said nope and he has asked Schumer and Pelosi to go it alone and pass his 1.9 trillion dollar package without any repub help or input…and the normal whining has started from the repubs that there has never been anything this big passed by only one party…hey, morons, what about the 1.8 trillion dollar tax cuts that you guys passed without any dem support? I find it heartening that Joe has leaned to play hardball with almost 70% of the country supporting what he is trying to do…and no thought about the politics of it….just doing what’s right…keep it up….
The IRS can go to hell….
Well…just got a response from my e-mail to our new rep, Peter Meijer and the gist of the letter they sent is that if I haven’t gotten my 600 dollar covid relief check yet, I’m shit out of luck…or I’ll have to file a tax return to get a credit to offset the taxes I owe…hey shitheads, being on SS I don’t owe any taxes so how is that going to work? As I’ve said before, the SS admin has everything necessary to direct deposit the money into my checking account since they do it every damn month but the IRS can’t talk to them? Just another instance of doing everything right your whole life and then getting screwed since no one can do their damn jobs right…they can all go to hell…
February 3rd
Well…made it all the way to coffee maker start this morning but I wonder why I still feel so damn worn out….it could be all of the stress that came from trying to get the mortgage stuff done and the fact that I have to organize another move soon….or it could be from not eating enough but how the heck can I be gaining weight only eating 1,000 calories a day? But, I’m not too sore today so I guess that’s something….I do have some back pain from working on the garage door yesterday but that will go away soon so I won’t take anything for it….I did get a nice bike ride in yesterday but I think I need to up the miles again to get to 10 a day and need to do it now since I’ll be off the bike next week…I am going to set the new bike up on the trainer when I move since it has the computer hooked up to the back wheel and that will register the miles I do on it….and that will take away the guilt of not getting my miles in….then I need to save for a new weight machine to start to get toned up again….not much to do today…have to do the grocery run this morning and then I’m going to take the rest of the day off…or just start packing again…not sure yet how I’m going to feel later….more later….
What a day…
Well…finally, have all of the paperwork done for the mortgage broker so all I have left to do is wait for the closing date…but it wasn’t easy and I have been working on it for the past two days…running all over town and that took up my entire morning….then, after I got back here, I had to ride the last paperwork over to the broker but when I tried to open the garage door, one of the springs had pulled loose and the door would only open about 18 inches…so I had to crawl under the door and help it open from the inside and then reposition the bracket about an inch into some better wood since I had already repaired this once when it came loose before and this time it just pulled all of the wood out and there was nothing left to bolt the bracket to. So, it’s been a damn long day and I haven’t even gotten to reading much news to get a topic…so that will have to come later since Man U is playing right now and I have been waiting all day to watch that….more later…